Beloit College Magazine

Significant Object

Program from the 1939 Beloit Relays:

The new track, turf, and field renovation, taking shape this summer at Strong Stadium, sent us back in time to think about Beloit’s proud history in track and field. The most prominent and long-lived chapter in that history is the Beloit Relays, one of the nation’s premier small-college annual track meets, which Beloit hosted from 1937 to 1979. The athletic events drew national press attention and widespread participation from schools in Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, and South Dakota for the third-annual meet, represented by the official program above. Spectators also packed Strong Stadium for the pageantry of marching bands, fireworks displays, and the crowning of the Relay Queen and her court. Beloit’s Athletic Director Louis Means is credited with starting the Relays in 1937.

Inside:

“Beloit College greets the valorous, muscular, speedy protagonists of physical prowess on this, the Third Beloit Relay Carnival, as they take their places in the long succession of athletes since the days of Phidippides.”